Alumni Leadership Stories
Amy Robinson and Your Values as Your Compass
Amy Robinson, Executive Officer at the Greater Shepparton Lighthouse Project, has always led from within, equating her leadership style with Leadership Victoria’s mantra that ‘leadership is not a position, it’s an activity’. She hadn’t planned to achieve her formal leadership title, but when the opportunity arose Amy felt a responsibility to her community to lead and create positive change.
Amy describes her duty as a leader as steered by her values of equity, honesty and empowerment. Her commitment to equity has seen her use her platform as a leader to elevate voices in her community that aren’t always heard, and advocate for those who are not often at the centre of decision making.
With no prior formal leadership development experience, Amy undertook the Williamson Community Leadership Program to gain tools to better lead across factions. Amy says her first interaction with LV Leader in Residence, Chris Kotur AM, had a great impact on her understanding that powerful outcomes can still be achieved with those who don’t necessarily share the same perspectives and priorities as yourself.
Working within systems to create change, Amy quickly grasped that introducing change into developed systems can often challenge those who do not want to give up that power, garnering pushback.
It’s about having a mindset that enables you to be collaborative, deeply listen to others and their perspectives, and continue to let your personal values be your compass
Amy describes WCLP as supporting her to gain the tools and models she needed to achieve her leadership goals. Additionally, the opportunity to practice them in a safe space built her confidence, and ability to challenge others to create change in her organisation and community. Now, Amy says, her commitment to her work is driven by her values, and learning to get comfortable in the discomfort of growth.
Identifying a lack of opportunities for young leaders, particularly in regional areas, and aiming to bridge that gap, Amy has found her post-WCLP leadership purpose. One action she is currently taking to fulfill that purpose is by creating observership models
that open the Greater Shepparton Lighthouse Project to young First Nation’s leaders and leaders of the CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) community. These young leaders are invited to observe the board of directors and gain the skills and confidence to be able to have a “formal seat the table” in various other areas of the Greater Shepparton community. Amy describes this initiative as “sharing our platforms and positional power to enable and lift up the next generation of leaders and unheard voices”.
AMY ROBINSON
2023 Williamson Fellow
Executive Officer,
Greater Shepparton Lighthouse Project